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Three Resolutions You Should Make as a Writer 12/27/2017 9:00:00 AM by: Andy Lee

by, Andy Lee

The potter labors at the wheel forming and shaping the carmine, wet clay. She stops and steps back to view her creation, judging curves and dimensions. Somedays only a few minor changes are required. But other days the entire project is scrapped, and a lump of clay again awaits its destiny.

The artist carefully selects the medium and colors for his painting. He begins with nothing but a vision and a sketch. As the brush awakens the white canvas, the painter hums a song. The tune invigorates the process until the artist notices a flaw. He stops to correct. But it takes more than one stroke. He decides more must be done to capture the exact beauty of his muse. So, he waits for tomorrow. New light is needed for better view.

The photographer grabs her camera and dashes out the door. Trees, flowers, and faces await her eye. She spots her first subject, focuses, refocuses, waits for the light, the moment just right for the shot. She rushes home to download the bounty, but there is still work to be done. Edit after edit each photo comes to life—more light there, less on that one. Crop, cut, shade.

And the writer. Her nimble fingers click away at her laptop. Sentences flow from her head through her hands taking life on the white screen. Cursor flashing, she only stops a moment for a figurative breath before forming the next sentence. She reads. And rereads. Prints to step back and view different angles. She crosses out unnecessary words, and adds others. Stronger verbs, smells, tastes, sounds. As her metal paintbrush clicks away she begins to unravel the story in her heart.

There are days when her prose doesn’t form as she wishes. Though the story sits on the page before her, she chooses to delete.

And she awaits for another sunrise to beckon her back to the keys. She waits for new light to reshape the narrative. The devotion. The chapter. The blog post. To add more color, shade, cropping, lengthening, creating her work of art.

It’s a new year. Time to renew old dreams, birth new ones, and vow to do the work of your hands. Dear fellow writer, you are an artist. It takes time, consistency, courage, hard work, and faith.

Here are three resolutions that will make 2018 more productive, encouraging, and successful.

Attend a writers conference. Meet fellow artists who will encourage and inspire you and editors and agents who can guide and direct. Networking is invaluable to the writer. The Florida Christian Writers Conference is a great place to start!

Discipline yourself to write an hour or more a day. Print, read, edit, cut, add. Hold it in your hand. Let it sleep. Come back to it the next day and the next until it’s the best you can create.

“Every artist was once an amateur,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson. We, my fellow writers are in good company.

May 2018 be a year of hard work and fruit of your labor.

Have you made any writing resolutions for 2018?

Andy Lee is the author of A Mary Like Me: Flawed Yet Called (Leafwood, 2016) and The Book of Ruth Key Word Bible Study: A 31-Day Journey to Hope and Promise (AMG, 2015). She’s a blogger, event speaker, Bible teacher, and Facebook Live entrepreneur. Andy is the managing editor of the FCWC blog and the president of the Wilmington, NC, Word Weavers chapter. Her articles have been featured in MTL magazine and CBN.com, and she is a monthly contributor to The Write Conversation blog. Andy digs deep to live fully on her site www.wordsbyandylee.com where she provides a weekly Bible reading plan called the Bite of Bread. Join hundreds of viewers on Facebook for her daily broadcast, an encouraging teaching about the “bite” or verse for the day. There’s nothing like a healthy breakfast for your soul.

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Comments

Laura From At 1/10/2018 11:42:45 PM

An hour every day is hard! But so is succeeding. Thank you for a gentle, but clear reminder to focus on what's most important...God's calling in my life. ??

Reply by: Florida Christian Writers

Hey Laura! You're welcome! Yes, girl, do what God is calling you to do! Obedience is better than sacrifice.

Jeanne Doyon From CT At 12/27/2017 11:00:57 AM

Committing says "Yes" to God's call to write. "Yes" to honing our craft, writing junk for the phrase that captures the imagination. And, "Yes" to daily pursuing the doors that open as well as the doors that may seem stuck at the moment.